FIFA's new financial report isn't just the financial story of last year; it also offers a fascinating window onto the future.

This is in the form of the football governing body's budget for the 2015-2018 business cycle.

Readers shouldn't look on this as set in concrete; some might say it isn't even set in custard: not even Madame FIFA can gaze into her crystal ball with anything approaching infallibility.

But it does offer an informative glimpse into how FIFA President Joseph Blatter and his chums think the medium-term future might pan out.

So what does it tell us?

Well, for one thing, FIFA's revenue base is expected to continue growing at a healthy lick.

The plan budgets revenue of a nice round $5 billion (£3 billion/€3.5 billion).

This is up nearly one-third on the $3.8 billion (£2.3 billion/€2.8 billion) it said in its 2009 report it was working on the basis of for the current 2011-2014 period.

Television rights, predominantly for the 2018 World Cup, should still bring in the majority of this, a projected $2.7 billion (£1.6 billion/€1.9 billion).

But marketing rights, which for these purposes includes ticketing and hospitality, are catching up fast.

Income of $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion/€1.7 billion) is expected, which is 44 per cent up on the $1.6 billion (£967 million/€1.1 billion) initially pencilled in for 2011-2014.

But things only get really interesting when you start to look at how FIFA thinks it might spend this money.

Both in its latest report and in 2009, FIFA sub-divides its quadrennial spending pot into six core areas: development projects; the World Cup; other competitions; football governance; operational expenses; and a relatively small amount for rights exploitation.

Guess which of these areas are earmarked to receive the biggest increases when you compare the planned 2015-2018 budget with that originally set out for 2011-2014?

More than $2 billion has been set aside to help Russia prepare to host the 2018 World Cup ©Getty Images

One of them is FIFA's glitziest competition, the 2018 World Cup, to be staged in Vladimir Putin's resurgent Russia, which is set to swallow 43 per cent of those projected $5 billion (£3 billion/€3.5 billion) revenues.

The $2.15 billion (£1.29 billion/€1.55 billion) currently budgeted for it is up a hefty 55.5 per cent on the $1.385 billion (£837 million/€1.003 billion) budgeted four years ago for this year's World Cup in Brazil.

It should be said, though, that accumulated expenses recognised in connection with the 2014 World Cup had, in actual fact, already reached $1.436 billion (£868 million/€1.040 billion) by the end of 2013 - ie nearly six months before a ball is kicked.

This is not, though, the biggest cycle-on-cycle budget increase.

That privilege falls to "operational expenses and services" - basically, as far as I can see, the amount sucked in by the central FIFA organisation.

The budget for this in 2015-2018 is put at $990 million (£598 million/€717 million) - an eye-popping 69.2 percent more than the $585 million (£354 million/€424 million) budgeted in 2009 for the same area for the 2011-2014 period.

Many of the detailed cost centres have been relabelled between 2009 and 2013, though it is plain enough that the human resources budget has leapt from $270 million (£163 million/€196 million) to $451 million (£273 million/€327 million) - that's up 67 per cent.

"Building and maintenance" [$47 million (£28 million/€34 million) for 2011-2014] has become "buildings and maintenance incl. FIFA Museum" [$124 million (£75 million/€90 million) for 2015-2018].

FIFA's revenues continue to expand ©Getty Images

The catch-all "other" category has grown from $97 million (£59 million/€70 million) budgeted for 2011-2014 to $228 million (£138 million/€165 million) for 2015-2018.

And what of development projects?

Well the budget for these has also been ratcheted up, but by a comparatively meagre 12.5 per cent -from $800 million (£484 million/€580 million) to $900 million (£544 million/€652 million).

This, remember, in the context of overall revenues projected to rise by 31.6 per cent.

If I were a coach or official from one of FIFA's poorer national associations, then, studying these figures, I would certainly want to know what justifies a shift of priorities of this magnitude: four years ago, operational expenses and services were allotted a budget $215 million (£130 million/€156 million) smaller than development projects; this year, their budget for the coming four-year cycle is $90 million (£54 million/€65 million) bigger.

That is some swing.

Looking at these numbers, it is hard not to conclude that the poorer members of Mr Blatter's football family are going to be left with a smaller proportion of FIFA's still fast-expanding cake over the four years leading up to the 2018 World Cup.

The 2015-18 budget also makes plain that, with reserves standing at $1.43 billion (£865 million/€1.03 billion) at end-2013, the era of deliberate reserve-building at FIFA is soon to end.

One consequence of this is that the governing body's 2015-2018 planning calls for a balanced budget over the cycle, once depreciation and taxes are taken into account.

This means, in turn, as the financial report notes, that individual annual results "may even be negative".

Projections accompanying the text suggest, indeed, that FIFA may suffer deficits of as much as $30 million (£18 million/€22 million), after depreciation and taxes, in 2015 and $20 million (£12 million/€14.5 million) in 2016.

These would be balanced by a $50 million surplus (£30 million/€36 million) in World Cup year, 2018.

Contrast this with the pattern from 2007-10, when cumulative surpluses totalling more than $600 million (£363 million/€435 million) doubled reserves from $643 million (£389 million/€466 million) to $1.28 billion (£774 million/€928 million).

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here .